Resurrection Comes Around
Siham Karami
Resurrection Comes Around
Earth has a name and something of a voice.
Her messages are broadcast all the time
by albatross and whale, by scum and slime,
on beetles’ backs, on bees and butterflies,
whole empires of the ants and flocks of birds,
the scent of every predator and prey,
the smoke of every burning banyan tree,
the running wildebeests and zebras, herds
of cattle, bony, starved on sacred ground
where roots and stems push through broken stones
and deserts bury tentacles and bones
and ancient conches give the wind its sound.
An oceanful of fish and plankton move
between angelic jellyfish, whose light
mirrors our old Milky Way at night,
reminding us of all the worlds in love
with scavengers, and ruminators, torn
and tearing all the universe to shreds
of bladderwrack and tardigrades, of Heads
of State and mountains crushed to whiffs of yarn,
and all things were but messengers to warn
as Earth expels her legacy—reborn.
Siham Karami is the author of To Love the River (Kelsay Books, 2018), described as “a love poem about life,” featuring poems in numerous forms and some of her own invention, as well as free verse. Her work has been published in Ecotone, The Orison Anthology, Smartish Pace (as 3rd place winner of the Beulah Rose poetry contest), Tiferet Journal, and Think, among others. Three of her sonnets have won the Laureates’ prize in the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.